Morocco Reflections

I realize I haven’t really written much about my time in Rabat, what I would now call one of the most under-rated cities in Morocco.  Or, how was it working from here?  I absolutely loved it.  The city and my experience here was so much better than I could have imagined, despite the craziness of my last week in the country (see story about the desert and the Moroccan ER).

I was very skeptical about what life would be like there here, especially living with 8 strangers.  We all learned how to co-exist quite early on.  If you wanted company, you always had it, but no one minded if you wanted to lock yourself away for the day.  This is the beauty of living with experienced travelers – everyone understands that at times, you just need to watch a silly movie by yourself.  The “Real Riad of Rabat” crew became my first family away from home on this adventure.  We were together when we first explored the medina, they provided emotional support when I had to negotiate for my rug, went with me to the hospital and lifted my bags when I couldn’t.  This is one of the things I love most about living abroad – the intense bonds you form with people quickly and the quickness that people step-up when you need them.

When I first heard we were going to be living in Rabat I didn’t know what to think. This city had never been on my radar because most people don’t go here when visiting Morocco.  I only knew about Marrakesh, Casablanca and Fez.  Why aren’t we staying in one of those cities? I was a bit disappointed, erroneously thinking those cities would have been cooler.  While I haven’t been to Fez and had limited time in Casablanca and Marrakesh, I am so happy we were in Rabat opposed to the other cities.  Rabat is a very livable city with solid internet.  In Marrakesh, internet was so spotty and cell service kept coming and going.  Casablanca missed the historic allure of Rabat and in general, both cities were geared more for tourists compared to Rabat where we had a bit more of a local experience.

Rabat also had a different charm about it and I will be the first to attribute a great deal of this to the fact that I lived in the medina.  The same shop owners who said hello every morning and the local orange juice guy who tried to speak French with us were what made this experience come alive.  Even after living in the medina for four weeks, I was still discovering new alleys.  I described the medina as a maze in my first post and it still is true.  During our last week, we went to an amazing restaurant deep in the medina.  We had directions up until a point then it read “just when you think you are lost look for a man with a lantern and he will take you the rest of the way.”  Spot on.  We were confused where to go and once we lifted our heads from staring at Google Maps, a man with a lantern was standing against the wall.  Experiences like this made the medina sing to me.  The brightly colored walls had stories, the restaurants had coded taps to enter and each turn represented the potential for an unknown discovery.

Long before I left for Morocco I decided that I would buy a Moroccan rug.  As I travel more, I’ve been trying to make a few larger purchases that I plan to keep for decades.  Besides, how can I leave Morocco, when I was literally surrounded by rug stores, without purchasing one.  I had done a few scouting trips to our neighbor’s shop and knew what I wanted, but of course I put the purchase off until the last day and the nice man wasn’t there.  I definitely felt like I paid more because I couldn’t bargain with the guy that knew me and had to use harsher negotiation tactics.

Negotiating for a rug is hard!  One of the first rules of negotiating was not to get attached to the object.  You don’t want to let on to the shopkeeper that you loved the object as they know you’ll pay more then.  Well, when buying a rug, I don’t think that works.  Obviously, if I’m buying something over $40, I better really like it!  The rug guy started with an outrageous price so I went insanely low, might have insulted him in the process but hard to tell.  In our mix of French and English, we eventually agreed to “never mention our current prices again as they were ridiculous” and after ten minutes of the back and forth reached an agreement.  A few friends were there watching this exchange and luckily took photos.  I definitely needed them there for emotional support and the confidence that I was getting a good price.  Whether or not I actually got a good price is unknown, but I’ve learned through travelling that as long as I feel like I got a good price, that’s all that matters (the competitive side of me wanted to know if I could have gone lower but that is a large time investment).

I was really worried about working from Morocco as it’s not a place you think about having a solid IT infrastructure. While there were a few stressful moments, usually during a bad storm, I was pleasantly surprised.  I’d say I dropped calls just as often as when I’m in New Hampshire.  The only downside to the workspace was the lack of insulation – it got so loud in there!

During my second week in Morocco, I actually flew back to the States for a meeting.  At first this seemed crazy, but it was completely doable.  With the exception of my ears not popping, the flights worked out very well, mainly thanks for lounges.  The 6-7 hour layovers matched perfectly with the working day so I didn’t feel like I was behind with work and I was back in Rabat by 9am on Saturday morning, in time to meet-up with friends for the afternoon’s activities.

In general, I loved my time in Morocco.  I could have stayed a few more weeks and really wanted to explore more of the country but it’s not a place I would move to for more than a few months.  (This is always a mental test I give myself).  This country is not a place for everyone, especially those wanting to live somewhere for a month or more. Be realistic with yourself about what kind of traveler you are and what experience you want.  China helped prepare me for Morocco.  Without the challenges I faced while living in Beijing, I would be writing a much different piece right now.  China taught me to expected the unexpected and roll with the punches.  There is only so much in life you can control and after that you have two choices: laugh about it or cry.  Laughing always seemed like a better option to me.

This experience was the complete opposite from China in one main way – I was a minority whose “status” was unknown.  In China and India, I stood out because I was white and was allotted even more privileges.  This was not the case in Morocco.  All I can aim to do is empathize what minorities in the US go through and help drive change; this experience helped to open my eyes to what that experience could feel like.  I was stared at constantly and sometimes it was a look of curiosity, other times there were looks of disgust behind the glances.  Even while we tried speaking French, we were occasionally told it was unacceptable to not speak proficient Arabic or French and be in Morocco.  Within a 2 block walk, two friends and I had our butts or boobs grabbed – like we were dolls.  This only happened once, but for this to happen to the 3 of us on a Sunday evening was absurd.  The guys that did this blended into a crowd and there was no way to figure out who they were.  While living in this environment was trying at times, I chose to learn from this experience and funnel that energy towards better conversations with people about the topics that are currently in our daily news.

To end on a positive note, Morocco is a country full of hidden gems, waiting to be discovered around the next corner.  I really hope to return in the coming years and explore more of the cities.  Most importantly, I am so glad I decided to make the leap and join We Roam for six months.  I didn’t realize how much I missed a new daily experience and working with people until this program started.  I’m so excited for what is to come next in Santiago, Chile!